The new Muppet, Alex, won't be a regular character, but is featured in the tool kit.

According to a Pew Charitable Trust report in 2010, 1 in 28 kids in the U.S. has a parent in jail; that's roughly one kid in every kindergarten class. The number is even higher for black children: 1 in 9. (Alex is an orange-ish Muppet with a green nose and blue hair.)

, the program director of the Osborne Association's New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents says: "The goal of these materials is not to normalize parental incarceration because there's nothing normal about it. It's great to focus on those children immediately impacted ... but I want to see these materials affect policy."